sucker or not to sucker?

[hillbilly Willy]

Hi Brand new member...have heard both sides of this question, should suckers be pulled or left or some combination. Also did a super dense tomato garden at office, due to space restraints, how bad will it affect crop?
Thanks!

[zabby17]

Willy,

There's no need to pull off suckers in order to make your plant grow better in most situations. There's a rumour that they "will never fruit" or "will suck the energy from your plant" but they're just branches like any other on the plant. In most situations, more plant means more fruit!

BUT there are reasons you might want to prune to some extent:
- for looks
- for better air cicrulation, esp. near the bottom, in a crowded garden bed
- to keep branches off the ground, both for looks and to reduce soil-splashed diseases if those are a problem for you
- to make the plant easier to tie up (I prune off branches that get in the way of tying up another branch!)
- to reduce the size of the plant because of space issues
- in a very cool or very short-season area, to have fewer tomatoes so the ones that are there will ripen

Sounds like you might want to prune in your super-dense situation. That will definitely affect the production (depending on what you mean by dense). But you can still get lots of tomatoes from overcrowded plants if your soil is very good and/or you fertilize regularly to replenish it the nutrients.

The biggest problem may be the difficulty of harvesting! Like many people, I planted a tomato "jungle" in my first year---it's so hard to believe just HOW big they will get, and you want to squeeze in as many plants as you can.... (In my case, 16 in a 3 x 8 foot bed). I decided never to do that again as I nearly was lost for life plunging in to pick those tomatoes. (Now I plant 10 in a 4 x 8 foot bed; many people would still find this too close.)

Also of course depends what kind. If the label said "determinate," DON'T PRUNE any suckers. The plant will probably be small by nature and produce most of its crops over a short time. If it said "indeterminate" that means it will keep growing---and producing tomatoes---all summer. Some kinds grow bigger than others, the biggest are usually cherry tomato plants.

Good luck! And welcome!

Z

[tokizy]

I am a lazy sucker. hahahha. Sounds funny. I have used the stringer method for my 2nd year now. (Let the tomato vine grow up the string). For the string to work its easiest to suck and have only 1 main vine. Hence my laziness, I eventually give up and have plants with suckers growing all kinds of crazy.

Rule of thumb I have heard:
Suckering: Bigger Better Fruit (less quantity), more resitance to disease
Non Suckering: More Fruit smaller size.

Sometimes I sucker, Sometimes I don't. Just depends on my mood.

[QAGuy]

Here's infomation from an old study.

In general the yield decreases in proportion to the severity of pruning. For example, at Urbana, Ill., plants pruned to a single stem gave a yield of 6.5 pounds of marketable fruit; those pruned to 2 stems yielded 10.5 pounds; those with three stems 12.1 pounds; but plants not pruned gave a yield of 19.6 pounds.

But if you ain't got the room, you ain't got the room.

I sucker heavily and still get more tomatoes than I could possibly use from 9 plants.
And I can find them too! No digging in the jungle to find fruit.

[TomNJ]

I prune all growing tips that start below the first flower truss in order to improve air circulation. I also prune lower branches when they begin to show any yellowing or spots. Since I use a heavy straw mulch I am not worried about splash back.

TomNJ

[feldon30]

Ok, we need a sticky thread about Pruning/Suckering. There is a lot of great information out there and on Tomatoville on the subject, but when it gets asked 3-4 times a week, people get tired of posting the same answers. See also BER, Which Brandywine, etc.

BTW: No offense intended to the original poster.

[hillbilly Willy]

Thanks! This is pretty cool, my first time on internet forums etc. and it has been a learning experience. Getting ready for 108 degree heat here in stl tomorrow. !

[Crandrew]

Originally Posted by zabby17

Willy,

The biggest problem may be the difficulty of harvesting! Like many people, I planted a tomato "jungle" in my first year---it's so hard to believe just HOW big they will get, and you want to squeeze in as many plants as you can.... (In my case, 16 in a 3 x 8 foot bed). I decided never to do that again as I nearly was lost for life plunging in to pick those tomatoes. (Now I plant 10 in a 4 x 8 foot bed; many people would still find this too close.)

Z

WOW you planted 16 in a 3x8 that must have been fun to handle.

Z, this year I planted 4 in a 3x6 and thought it looked empty...this month I no longer feel that way. Im trying what some of the vets say to do which is no cutting or plucking besides the bottom 1-2 feet of leaves to avoid splash back and promote airflow. So they are BUSHMASTERS, huge plants. So far im happy with production and all of the suckers are growing fruit

[Worth1]

Corn suckers tomatoes mostly branch.
I look at my tomato plants as trees.

Worth

[zabby17]

Originally Posted by Crandrew

WOW you planted 16 in a 3x8 that must have been fun to handle.

Z, this year I planted 4 in a 3x6 and thought it looked empty...this month I no longer feel that way. Im trying what some of the vets say to do which is no cutting or plucking besides the bottom 1-2 feet of leaves to avoid splash back and promote airflow. So they are BUSHMASTERS, huge plants. So far im happy with production and all of the suckers are growing fruit

Yes, well, as I said, I tried it ONCE.... (I read in gardent books that that was way too close and it would be hard to harvest. "Hard to harvest?" I thought. "How hard can it be to pick tomatoes from a plant?" Nearly didn't come out of that bed alive some days!)

Other than ones turning yellow or bug-munched, the most common reason I pluck a branch is that it gets just plain in my way as I try to tie each plant up to its stake (or its neighbour's stakes---they have to share).

Z